An entrepreneur and fashion designer from Milwaukee who's backed by well-known local venture capital investors recently was honored by ELLE magazine alongside women including U.S. First Daughter Ashley Biden and businesswoman Arianna Huffington.
Milwaukee native Elena Velez was among 15 individuals recognized in ELLE's inaugural Women of Impact issue published on March 28. Velez is a fashion designer currently based in New York and the founder of her eponymous fashion brand.
The brand, Elena Velez, is backed by gener8tor, a Wisconsin-based startup accelerator and venture capital firm, and CSA Partners, a Milwaukee venture firm led by former Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.
As Velez told ELLE, she was raised in Milwaukee by a single mother who captained a ship on Lake Michigan. She incorporates “blue-collar, bygone Americana landscape” into her fashion designs.
In November 2022, Velez received the American Emerging Designer of the Year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
Velez hopes to open a co-working space in Milwaukee where she can produce her own collection as well as garments of other designers, she told ELLE. It would include a venture capital accelerator program aimed at growing other fashion brands outside of traditional fashion capitals like New York and Los Angeles.
Elena Velez participated in gener8tor's venture studio program in Milwaukee in 2020. In the studio program, gener8tor partners with entrepreneurs to build new businesses from scratch.
Other women on ELLE's 2023 Women of Impact list were Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, actress Keke Palmer, and track and field Olympian Allyson Felix.
